Round Table: Final Four and sleeper picks for upcoming college hoops season

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Published Oct 26, 2017

Round Table: Final Four and sleeper picks for upcoming college hoops season

Justin Rowland • CatsIllustrated

Publisher

@RowlandRIVALS

Cats Illustrated's 2017-18 college basketball preview work continues. Recently the staff shared its picks, one by one, for Kentucky's regular season and tournament performance.

Here we take a step back and survey the national landscape.

Surveying the national college basketball landscape, what's your preseason, way-too-early prediction for the Final Four and who are some sleeper teams to watch for?

T.J. Walker, Basketball Recruiting Analyst: Duke, Arizona, Michigan State and Wichita State. Those obviously are all top 10 teams, but they have the perfect blend of talent and experience to make a deep run to San Antonio. Keep an eye on Louisville, Seton Hall, and SEC teams Alabama, Florida and Missouri. All three teams have star players that if hot in March they could win four games to get to the Final Four.

Jeff Drummond, Managing Editor: My preseason Final Four would be UK, Michigan State, Wichita State and West Virginia. I still can't believe Izzo got Mile Bridges back for a second season with the Spartans. The Shockers and Mountaineers have a bunch of veterans to lean on, too. Tough, battle-tested teams there. Missouri, led by freshman phenom Michael Porter, will be my sleeper pick out of the SEC.

Justin Rowland, Publisher: I have to go with Michigan State as one solely on the basis of Tom Izzo's proven track record of navigating the tournament. He doesn't always do it, but when you're picking just four teams and he's got this kind of talent returning, it wouldn't be wise to bet against him. I'm tempted to not pick Arizona because of the black cloud looming over the program right now, and because Sean Miller definitely does not have Izzo's track record of navigating the tournament for deep runs, but it's going to be tough to mess up the amount of talent he's got in the desert. I'll make the unpopular choice -- Duke -- solely on the basis of the Blue Devils being enormously talented and that impressive on paper. Wichita State seems like a good fourth choice. They were very underrated last season and have great experience and balance. As for sleeper picks, Miami might not qualify because they'll have a lot of hype coming into the season, but I don't think the casual fan realizes how good the Hurricanes should be.